reading list

january 2012

• Volt by Alan Heathcock (stories/debut)

december 2011

• So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (novel)
• The Empty Family by Colm Toibin (stories)

november 2011

• An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski (nonfiction)
• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (novel)
• We The Animals by Justin Torres (novel/debut)

october 2011

• Notes Home From a Prodigal Son by Douglas Glover (essays)
• The Court of Common Pleas by Alexandra Marshall (novel/reread)
• The Gathering by Anne Enright (novel/reread)

september 2011

• No Place on Earth by Christa Wolf (novel)
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (novel)

august 2011

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (novel)
• Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (novel/reread)
• Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (novel/reread)

july 2011

• Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (novel)
• Natural Causes by Mark Cox (poetry)

june 2011

• Elle by Douglas Glover (novel)
• The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen (debut novel)
• The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow (debut novel)

may 2011

• The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (memoir)
• Reality Hunger by David Shields (nonfiction)

april 2011

• This Won’t Take But A Minute, Honey by Steve Almond (essays and stories)
• The Art of the Novel by Milan Kundera (craft)
• A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (essays)
• Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston (novel)
• Mother of Sorrows by Richard McCann (stories)

march 2011

• The Age of Grief by Jane Smiley (stories and a novella)
• Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster (craft)
• How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly by Connie May Fowler (novel)

february 2011

• Under the Mercy Trees by Heather Newton (debut novel)
• Wrecker by Summer Wood (novel)

january 2011

• Beloved by Toni Morrison (novel/reread)
• The Gathering of My Name by Cornelius Eady (poetry/reread)
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (novel)
• Showing & Telling by Laurie Alberts (craft)

december 2010

• Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (novel)
• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (did not finish) (novel)

november 2010

• Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg (debut novel)
• Evocative Objects edited by Sherry Turkle (essays)
• Coming to Writing and Other Essays by Helene Cixous (essays)
• By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham (novel)
• Journeyman’s Wages by Clemens Starck (poetry)
• Shakespearean Design by Mark Rose (craft)
• Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout (novel/reread)

october 2010

• Jesus’ Son by Dennis Johnson (stories/reread)
• Words Overflown by Stars edited by David Jauss (craft essays from the Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty)
• The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (novel)

september 2010

• Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes (memoir)
• The Art of Time in Fiction by Joan Silber (craft)
• Rhythm in the Novel by E. K. Brown (craft)
• A Doctor’s Visit: Short Stories by Anton Chekhov (stories)

august 2010

• The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart (debut novel)
• Jane Addams: Spirit in Action by Louise W. Knight (biography)
• Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel (debut novel)
• Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips (novel)
• A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert (novella)
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter (short novel)

july 2010

• Alone With All That Could Happen (craft) by David Jauss
• Last Rites by David Jauss (novella)
• You Are Not Here by David Jauss (poetry)
• Black Maps by David Jauss (stories)
• My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira (debut novel)

june 2010

• Mrs. Somebody Somebody by Tracy Winn (debut story collection)
• Rabbit, Run by John Updike (novel)
• Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom (stories)

may 2010

• The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (novel/reread)
• Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott (novel)
• Verging on the Pertinent by Carol Emshwiller (stories)

april 2010

• The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (novel)
• If I loved you, I would tell you this by Robin Black (debut story collection)
• More of This World or Maybe Another by Barb Johnson (debut story collection)
• Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson (novel)
• Evidence by Mary Oliver (poetry)
• A Kind of Flying by Ron Carlson (stories)

march 2010

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard (nonfiction)
• How Fiction Works by James Wood (craft)
• The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (stories)
• Love in Mid Air by Kim Wright (debut novel)

february 2010

• Love and Summer by William Trevor (novel)
• Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel (stories)
• Edinburgh by Alexander Chee (debut novel)
• Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (essays)

january 2010

• Devotion by Dani Shapiro (memoir)
• California Transit by Diane Lefer (stories)
• Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro (stories)

december 2009

• Mentors, Muses, & Monsters edited by Elizabeth Benedict (essays)
• The Signal by Ron Carlson (novel)

november 2009

• An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay (first novel)
• The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (novel)
• Things You Should Know by A. M. Homes (stories)

october 2009

▪                A Brief History of Time by Shaindel Beers (poetry)

▪                Snoop by Sam Gosling (nonfiction)

▪                A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (novel)

▪                The Sweet In-Between by Sheri Reynolds (novel)

▪                poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldrigde (craft)

▪                wildlives by Monique Proulx (novel)

september 2009

▪                Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (novel)

▪                Speak Low by Carl Phillips (poetry)

august 2009

▪                That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (novel)

▪                Fearless Confessions by Sue William Silverman (craft)

▪                The Music Room by Dennis McFarland (first novel/reread)

july 2009

▪                This is Water by David Foster Wallace (essay)

▪                The Way to Write by John Fairfax and John Moat (craft)

▪                The Best American Short Stories 2008 edited by Salman Rushdie (story anthology)

june 2009

▪                Thinking About Memoir by Abigail Thomas (craft)

▪                The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher (novel)

▪                The Writer’s Notebook (craft essays from Tin House)

▪                The Vagrants by Yiyun Li (first novel)

may 2009

▪                The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan (first novel)

▪                When the Piano Stops by Catherine McCall (memoir)

▪                Don’t Cry by Mary Gaitskill (stories)

▪                Stop-Time by Frank Conroy (memoir)

april 2009

▪                Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (novel)

▪                Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (novel)

▪                The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King (novel)

march 2009

▪                House of Light by Mary Oliver (poetry)

▪                The Secret Currency of Love edited by Hilary Black (essays)

▪                In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (nonfiction)

▪                Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (novel/reread)

february 2009

▪                A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by YiYun Li (stories)

▪                An Accidental Light by Elizabeth Diamond (first novel)

▪                Safe Suicide by DeWitt Henry (essays)

▪                Plant Dreaming Deep by May Sarton (memoir)

▪                Watching the Spring Festival by Frank Bidart (poetry)

january 2009

▪                Dirt Music by Tim Winton (novel)

▪                The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts (nonfiction)

▪                Light in August by William Faulkner (reread/novel)

december 2008

▪                Last Night by James Salter (stories)

▪                Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk (reread/novel)

▪                The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (novel)

november 2008

▪                Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (autobiography/audio)

▪                A Mercy by Toni Morrison (novel)

▪                In the Fold by Rachel Cusk (novel)

▪                Home by Marilynne Robinson (novel)

october 2008

▪                To Kill a Mockingbird (novel/audio)

▪                November 22, 1963 by Adam Braver (novel)

▪                The Lucky Ones by Rachel Cusk (novel)

▪                Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (reread/novel)

▪                A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother by Rachel Cusk (memoir)

september 2008

▪                The Country Life by Rachel Cusk (novel)

▪                The Temporary by Rachel Cusk (novel)

▪                Falling Through Space by Ellen Gilchrist (reread/essays)

▪                Saving Agnes by Rachel Cusk (first novel!)

august 2008

▪                Why Write?  by Paul Auster (essays)

▪                The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti (first novel!)

▪                Picturing the Wreck by Dani Shapiro (novel)

july 2008

▪                Walking to Martha’s Vineyard by Franz Wright (poetry)

▪                Three Uses of the Knife by David Mamet (essays)

▪                Light in August by William Faulkner (novel)

▪                Strong is Your Hold by Galway Kinnell (poetry)

▪                Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk (novel)

▪                The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso (memoir)

june 2008

▪                The Heart is a Loney Hunter by Carson McCullers (reread/novel)

▪                The Problem with Paradise by Lesley Dahl (ya novel)

▪                Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos (novel)

▪                Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (memoir)

▪                Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (novel)

▪                Flight by Sherman Alexie (novel)

▪                Late Wife by Claudia Emerson (poetry)

may 2008

▪                Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (linked stories)

▪                Enduring Love by Ian McEwan (novel)

▪                A Dangerous Age by Ellen Gilchrist (brand new novel!)

▪                The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre (novel)

april 2008

▪                Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti (stories/debut)

▪                The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (novel)

▪                The Awakening by Kate Chopin (novel)

▪                The Gateway by T. M. McNally (stories)

▪                The Gathering by Anne Enright (novel)

march 2008

▪                White Noise by Don DeLillo (novel)

▪                Falling Man by Don DeLillo (novel)

▪                Playing with Fire by Dani Shapiro (novel)

february 2008

▪                Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro (memoir)

▪                Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (novel)

january 2008

▪                Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (novel)

▪                Five Skys by Ron Carlson (novel)

▪                Ron Carlson Writes a Story by Ron Carlson (craft)

▪                The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter (craft)

▪                Fugitive Blue by Dani Shapiro (novel)

Please post a comment if you have any questions about these books.